Don Commemoration in Budapest

The requiem Mass was celebrated by Col. Tibor Berta, the vicar-general of the MoD Catholic Military Ordinariate inside Matthias church in Buda castle. Katalin Schmittné Makray, the President of the Republic’s wife, László Kövér, the Speaker of Parliament and former Prime Minister Péter Boross also attended the remembrance ceremony.

In his speech delivered in the ceremonial courtyard of the MoD Military History Institute and Museum, Defence Minister Csaba Hende stressed that we have to remember so that “we can come to know and understand the ordeal that our grandparents’ generation had to go through. We have to remember in order to understand through their fate how dear the Hungarian Homeland is, and how valuable the national tricolors are". The Defence Minister added that we should treat the still living witnesses with special respect, as they are decreasing in number.

Csaba Hende said that according to military historians, the then “Hungarian Defence Forces were prepared for defending the freedom and interests of the nation in potential armed conflicts in Central Europe, against enemies of comparable strength. They were not prepared for bleeding to death while fighting against the world’s largest army in an attempt to accomplish an impossible mission." Today’s updated figures show that the 2nd Hungarian army suffered nearly 42,000 fatalities; around 26,000 men were taken prisoners of war; more than 28,000 were wounded in action and many of them went missing.

Csaba Hende also talked about those who returned home. “They came home because their loved ones were waiting for them here in Hungary. We have to commemorate them too, those who returned home. Throughout the next 40 years, nobody thanked them for that, so they lived on the periphery of society for 40 years in consequence of their loyal and heroic service."

At the wreath-laying event first Csaba Hende and Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, the Chief of the MoD Defence Staff laid the flowers of remembrance by the Don memorial plaque. After them, Katalin Makray Schmittné, Aide-de-Camp Brig.-Gen. László Szegő and Cabinet Chief Zoltán Csallóközi, on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, laid wreaths as well.

The ceremony finished with reading out the Chief of Defence’s ceremonial order on starting the 12th Don memorial tour, then the Minister of Defence as the main patron of the memorial tour handed over the order to Lt. Balázs Jásdi, the President of the Military Heritage Section of the Hungarian Reservists’ Association.

Photo: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky

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